Media outlets access enhanced multi-platform content at no charge, with alerts when we have new content on issues or from regions you may select. Once we receive the filled out form below, you'll receive a message with the passcode/s. Welcome!

*These fields are required

*Media Outlet name

*Media Outlet City/State

Contact name

Contact phone

*Email address or fax #

*Media Outlet type

Additional (beyond the state you are located in) content that you would like to receive

Newscasts

PNS Daily Newscast - November 19, 2018.

More than 1,200 missing in the California wildfires. Also on the Monday rundown: A pair of reports on gun violence in the nation; and concerns that proposed changes to 'Green Card' rules favor the wealthy.

A New Approach to Ending Homelessness in MO

PHOTO: Clients prepare to move into the newly renovated reStart Inc. shelter, where they will no longer have to move out each morning and line up in hopes of receiving a spot. Photo courtesy of reStart Inc.

November 18, 2013

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - For more than 30 years, reStart Inc. has had one mission: to end homelessness in Kansas City. Today, the agency is taking a whole new approach to meeting that goal. It's the end of the line for the homeless men, women and families who use the reStart shelter - the end of standing in long lines every day, often in extreme weather, hoping to get a place for the night.

Evie Craig, president and CEO of reStart Inc., said renovations are now complete that have re-purposed the emergency shelter into a place where clients can stay for longer periods of time. The traditional "cot and a hot" approach to homelessness isn't the most effective way to transition people to permanent housing, she added.

"If you had to leave your home every day, and then couldn't come back again until night and weren't guaranteed you'd always be able to get in, your life would be very different," Craig said.

The re-purposed shelter now offers 4-person units for 42 women and 48 men. Last year, reStart provided services for 16,000 homeless individuals, 9,000 of whom were children and youth.

The transition from an emergency overnight shelter to a longer-term stepping stone to independent living has been a gradual one, with the family shelter opening last year and the last component, the shelter for single men and women, opening today.

The results thus far speak for themselves, she said.

"We have families moving into their own one- and two-bedroom apartments, they can stay for up to six months, and we tripled the numbers of families who exited to permanent housing," Craig explained.

Many shelters across the country are moving away from the overnight-only model as they try to attack the root causes of homelessness.